July 26, 2004

Journalists at Risk

In the quote, Ailes says other news organizations would be crazy not to support his position on copyright.

Any different idea would "put journalism at risk".

He is right, of course.

If you allow people to use news in a critical film, the journalists concerned will face the risk of criticism. Which is exactly what the right of fair use is there for.

If you can't live with the idea that people might criticise your work, you have no business to be a journalist in the first place. And if you try to abuse copyright to silence criticism, you deserve to be laughed out of court.

One other thing. If Mr. Ailes expects CNN to come to his rescue, he might have wanted to refrain from asking why "CNN hates America" in the same paragraph.